One of my favorites. A very small butterfly. With a wing span of just three quarters to one inch, the Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas). As is sometimes the case, the thin tails on the hindwings of this butterfly, above, have been rubbed off.

This butterfly, a female, has the tails that are a clue to what the species is. The female’s upper wing surface is pale blue, brown or a dark gray while the male’s is blue.

And here, above, is a male with his stunning blue upper wings. And the very thin tail. Another clue to identification of an Eastern Tailed Blue is the orange chevrons on both the upper and lower sides of the hind wings near the tails.

Mating Eastern Tailed Blues will result in caterpillars that depend on legumes including cow vetch, clover, and alfalfa as their host plants. That may explain why I see these Blues so often fluttering just above my grass. A lot of that grass is actually clover.

During a year Eastern Tailed Blues usually have three broods The last brood of the year will overwinter as mature larvae in seed pods.

The native range of Eastern Tailed Blues is most of United States and southern Canada. It’s quite plentiful here in the east. Wonderful to know what species each of these amazing winged creatures is!